Disclaimer: of course, I do not own Naruto

A/N: To those of you who have remained unwaveringly devoted to this story the whole time I've been writing it, thank you for everything…. The reviews and all that, not to mention staying faithful even when I have all these dratted periods of writers block, I'm trying my hardest to make this story worth it. Anyway, after some very nerve-wracking months of frustration, here is chapter 13.

"Twins."

"What?" Sasuke and Naruto both snapped. A week had passed uneventfully in Konoha, and early that morning Tsunade herself had come pounding on the door of the Uchiha mansion. When a very grumpy and very pregnant Naruto came to answer the door - after being so rudely awaken by Tsunade's persistent pounding - he had been surprised to see the Hokage herself standing there with a cigarette in one hand and a medical bag in the other. The woman had dark rings around her eyes from either stress or loss of sleep, or possibly a combination of both.

She had barged in without the slightest explanation, and had demanded Naruto to lay on his back on the couch and pull his shirt up. She fretted about him needing a check-up, and grudgingly apologized for not being by earlier for it. "'S alright," Naruto said once he had the chance to intervene her ranting. A weary eyed Sasuke had come into the room then, shuffling in like an old man with a cup of coffee in one hand. Naruto had stared in stunned silence from where he lay on the couch.

The Kyuubi boy had never before seen Sasuke with such bad posture or dragging his feet the way he was. The Uchiha seemed to be moving in a half-daze, his eyes drooping lazily. Naruto realized with a start that the boy was also still in his pajamas. Sasuke never left his room with his pajamas on, especially not when it meant risking someone seeing him like that. Very rarely had Naruto himself even seen Sasuke in his sleeping clothes, and now here the boy was walking around in front of the Hokage with them on. Naruto blinked a few times, allowing his eyes to adjust so that he could take in all of Sasuke's appearance.

The Uchiha's hair was an absolute mess; it was painfully obvious that he had just woken up. There were rings almost as dark as bruises around his eyes, and he was slumped over as if about to fall on his face at any moment. Naruto wondered why Sasuke had been losing so much sleep.

Sasuke gave Naruto a sleepy smile as he approached and sat himself on the floor cross-legged next to the Hokage, who's only reaction was to eye him warily. The smile Sasuke had given was another even more unusual thing about him that morning though, so Naruto didn't reply. It was then that Tsunade made her announcement about twins.

"There are two sources of chakra in that belly now," she said simply. "Twins." She sighed heavily, rubbing her forehead. "Just something else to add to the list of things to worry about." Well, Naruto thought with a small sigh of his own, at least that explains a few things. He and Sasuke had began to wonder; once Naruto's stomach had finally started expanding, it seemed unable to stop, as if trying to make up for all those months without showing.

Abruptly sitting up a little straighter, as if remembering something important, Tsunade began packing her doctoring instruments and such back into her bag. Her hands moved faster than Naruto's brain could keep track of that early in the morning, and with a flash or two everything was put away and two bottles of pills lay next to the couch. Tsunade put her finger on the one to Naruto's left as he sat up and pulled his shirt back down to cover his overstuffed belly. "This one you take in the morning everyday. The other-" she put her finger on the one to the right "-you take every morning and night. Got it?"

Naruto nodded and reached down for the little bottles, bending awkwardly over his seemingly huge midsection; but before his fingertips even touched the bottles, Sasuke had already snatched them up. "Thank you, Tsunade-sama," Sasuke said to the woman as she stood. Tsunade seemed a little caught off guard by that at first - Sasuke had never regarded her as "sama" before - but she quickly masked her surprise and nodded to him seriously before heading out the door. She didn't even say goodbye.

Naruto and Sasuke sat staring at one another in silence for a moment, neither of them willing to make the first move. Finally, Naruto exhaled loudly. "Twins," he breathed. The Kyuubi boy noted quickly that Sasuke seemed half asleep from his position on the floor. The Uchiha looked up tiredly, and stood. Leaving his cup of now cold coffee and the two bottles of pills on the floor, Sasuke plopped himself down next to Naruto and sighed heavily. "Twins," he said, echoing Naruto. He stretched then.

Slowly, Naruto leaned back so that one of Sasuke's arms was wrapped around his shoulders. Instead of getting upset at this, the Uchiha seemed to take comfort in it, and allowed Naruto to rest against him. The position they were in was awkward due to Naruto's damn belly, but other than that, it was pleasant to be so close to one another.

Sasuke sat, reminiscing. "Does it all ever just… sneak up on you?" he half whispered. Naruto looked up at him, his expression questioning. "I mean, everything that's happened in the past few months. Do you ever just sit and take it all in at once? Doesn't it ever… overwhelm you at all?"

Naruto considered him carefully before answering. "You're tired Sasuke," he replied, his blue eyes gazing up at the Uchiha in concern. "Why haven't you been sleeping well?"

Sasuke frowned at this reminder. It was true though, he had been losing a lot of sleep lately. He hadn't admitted it to Naruto yet, but recently he hadn't been feeling well. He would be sitting in his room, or lying in his bed, and suddenly his whole body would go rigid. Then he would begin to have little spasms all over, as if his muscles were rippling. His whole body felt aflame, his blood literally felt like it was boiling in his veins. He would sweat immensely during these periods. Finally though, at the end, every tense muscle in his body would abruptly relax, and he would sit there, breathing hard and suddenly exhausted.

Sasuke wasn't sure what brought on these attacks - they cam on quite unexpectedly - but he hoped that he would never be in such a state around Naruto. There were several reasons why Sasuke had not yet told Naruto about these moments of weakness; and the first one was simply that, as an Uchiha, he hated admitting he was weak. Secondly, he didn't want to worry Naruto; the Kyuubi boy surely didn't need any more stress at this point in his pregnancy. Finally, and probably most importantly, Sasuke didn't want to put Naruto in a position where he would be totally useless. If an attack snuck up unexpectedly on Sasuke with Naruto around, the Kyuubi container would be unable to do anything to help him. Sasuke felt that seeing Naruto feel so helpless would only make the situation that much worse.

So, a little grudgingly despite everything, Sasuke stayed silent about it.

"Just a lot of bad dreams," he said, shrugging off Naruto's concern. Judging by the look on his face, Naruto obviously didn't believe it.

"Bad dreams about what?" he persisted.

"Just... bad."

Sasuke refused to elaborate after that.

The rest of the day passed pretty inconsequentially. Sasuke trained, fighting his exhausted body so that Naruto wouldn't suspect anything was wrong, and Naruto sat in his usual place in the shade intently reading a book. Sasuke would glance over from time to time, and his screaming muscles would, for a time, resent the pregnant Kyuubi boy. Finally, Sasuke abandoned his training and went inside to clean up a bit. Naruto, who was content right where he was, stayed in the chair with his nose in the book. When Sasuke came back out, Naruto allowed him to squish into the chair with him, and Sasuke dozed with Naruto in his arms.

Later, after dinner, Sasuke was resting on the couch that Tsunade had been examining Naruto on earlier. "Don't forget to take your medicine," the Uchiha reminded Naruto, who was sitting nearby, still reading.

"I know," the Kyuubi container replied distantly after a moment's hesitation. Obviously his mind was on the book, and he probably hadn't even heard what Sasuke had said.

"Must be a pretty interesting book," Sasuke commented.

After another moment, Naruto looked up and asked, "huh?"

Sasuke snickered and sat up. "Forget it. I'll get your pills."

"Oh," Naruto replied, understanding crossing his face even as he turned back to his book.

Sasuke went into the kitchen and reached up to grab the bottles he had put in the cabinet earlier. Just then, the muscles in his arms stiffened, and his eyes widened as he realized what was happening. A dozen thoughts ran through his mind at once. The first was that he couldn't let Naruto find out. The second was that his arm hurt. Also, he realized that if he fell, it would make too much noise, and then Naruto would surely come to the kitchen to see what was going on.

However, Sasuke only had that split second to think, because in that instant, the rest of the muscles in his body tightened, and in the next, he was on the floor, sweating and convulsing. He heard his own voice, moaning and grunting in pain. It felt like his body was on fire, and he had no control over his own limbs as they trembled violently at his sides.

"Sasuke!" Suddenly Naruto was there, and he rushed to his side. "Sasuke! What's happening?"

But Sasuke could not hear Naruto, and he could not see Naruto. His eyes had rolled up into the back of his head, and he couldn't even think past the pain. Then, abruptly, it all stopped. Sasuke lay, breathing hard on the floor, staring blankly up at the ceiling.

"Sasuke!" Naruto breathed with relief when Sasuke's spasms finally stopped and he could see the Uchiha's eyes again. Sasuke's breathing was heavy, and his body was covered in sweat. "Sasuke, what's going on?" Naruto's voice still shook slightly with fright. "Sasuke. Sasuke? Sasuke! Why aren't you answering me?" Naruto couldn't hold back the tears. Sasuke seemed conscious, and yet he would not speak. Naruto shook Sasuke, but it was a futile attempt.

Then Sasuke blinked. Twice. And a confused expression crossed his face. His eyes widened slightly, then a little more, then a lot. The Uchiha sat straight up, and without even looking Naruto's way, he ran back to the living room. "Sasuke!" Naruto followed the Uchiha, and found him putting on his shoes by the door. "Sasuke, where are you going?"

"I have to go," the other boy said, and the tone of his voice was firm. Whatever he had decided to do, he was determined to go through with it.

"What are you saying? You're sick!"

That was when Sasuke finally looked at him, and something seemingly struck the other boy. The expression on Sasuke's face was one that Naruto had never seen him make before, but it was obvious that the Uchiha was in pain. "Naruto," he started. "I have to go."

"You can't just leave me here!" Naruto cried, grabbing Sasuke by the arm.

"I'll send for Kakashi-sensei to come watch over you. I know he's in town; he just got back yesterday."

"But Sasuke-!"

"No!" Sasuke snapped. Then he spun, and pulled the blonde up into his arms. Taken by surprise, Naruto couldn't even hug him back. "I'll be back soon, I promise." A quick kiss on Naruto's forehead, and Sasuke was out the door.

Kakashi showed up half an hour later with Iruka, and the silver haired man stood watch outside while Iruka comforted the pregnant Kyuubi container who was weeping bitterly on the living room floor. Naruto wondered, how many times would Sasuke leave him crying like this?

A/N: I know it's short, and that was a bit unexpected, even to me. It's been such a long time since I updated, but at least I am updating again, you know? Maybe you expected this chapter to be really long, I'm sorry it's not. I know it seemed kind of thrown together, but that's only because it's been a while since I've worked on it. I've already started on the next part, and you can definately expect it to be better.